Constructivist Methods for Success in Content-Heavy

ClassesAllison A. Alcorn, Ph.D.

Illinois Wesleyan University – May 3, 2016

Teaching History is Like Trying to Take a Drink from a Fire Hose

Image: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=820

TheNitty

Gritty

What do we do with those kinds of stats?

Bloom’s TaxonomyGraphic: http://expertbeacon.com/blooms-taxonomy/#.U6CetdyGJWI

Covering vs Doing Content

Inductive and Deductive Learning

DEDUCTION Instructor presents the class with one or more concepts or principles, challenges the students to investigate a set of examples that are related to these main ideas, and then asks the students to test or apply the central idea.

INDUCTION Students experience a number of examples and develop a pattern of critical and noncritical attributes based on their experiences.

What is “culture”?A Deductive Concept Lesson

CULTU

RE

The way of life of a group of people who share similar customs, beliefs, and values.

Cultural artifacts: objects that reflect something about the people who made them

Ghana

What do the artifacts in the box on your table tell us about the culture of Ghana?

Observations

Impressions

Based on your deductions from the artifacts and the music playing, how would you describe the culture of Ghana?

Gregorian ChantAn Inductive Concept Lesson

Basics of Gregorian Notation

Stylistic Features of the Gregorian Repertory

• Monophonic texture

• Nonmetrical (?)

• Stepwise, arch

• Text-shaped phrases

• Modal

Style & Function

Types of Text• Biblical vs nonbiblical• Poetic vs prose

Relationship Music to Text• Syllabic• Melismatic• Neumatic

Performance Style• Direct• Responsorial• Antiphonal

Musicology is the discipline that studies the development of music and its literature through time, including the context of its culture and society.

An effective scholar of music histor y and literature

describes thedevelopment of musichistory and literaturethrough time

upon hearing or seeing music, identifies the style period, describing form and key features with scholarly vocabulary

knows important composers and characteristic works of each style period

contextualizes music history and literature within time and place

uses scholarly materials and resources to answer questions

uses a variety of scholarly resources—scores, books, journals, instruments, recordings, and digital media

uses scholarly resources to enlarge perspectives of music history and literature

demonstrates advanced writing skills necessary to communicate learning

applies understanding of good English within the study of music history and literature

documents learning in well-written essays, summaries, and reviews

synthesizes data to create and articulate new meaning

demonstrates advanced speaking and presentation skills in oral communication of thoughts and ideas

…Independence